Somalia on the brink again as window to push back hunger shrinks

GENEVA/ROME - Thank you, and good morning.

Today, I want to draw attention to a crisis that is unfortunately, yet again, accelerating in Somalia and doing so with alarming speed. 

I returned just this morning from a week in Somalia. Across the country I saw families that are now facing the cumulative effects of repeated extreme weather shocks, conflict, and economic pressure - all that are pushing hunger to dangerous levels. 

Somalia has now endured multiple failed rainy seasons - three consecutively - which has devastated crops, wiped-out livestock, is eroding livelihoods, and is impacting millions of people. 

Across the country, but particularly in Puntland, I saw water resources that have completely dried up. We see markets everywhere that are strained. And for many communities, recovery from previous crises has simply not been possible. 

Now six million people, almost one in three Somalis, are facing acute hunger. Among them, two million are already in emergency conditions - IPC phase four - one step from famine. Roughly 1.9 million children are acutely malnourished and hundreds of thousands of them are at risk of the most severe form of malnourishment.

This is not a distant warning. This is a crisis that is unfolding right now and it's deepening quickly. 

I spoke to families that have been forced to leave everything behind in search of food, in search of water, pastureland for their animals, and indeed assistance. At the same time, conflict and insecurity continues to limit access to the most vulnerable - further undermining their livelihoods. That's access for aid, but that's also access to trade and commercial goods.

Just yesterday in Mogadishu, I met a family that had only arrived a week earlier from the south of the country, one amongst thousands fleeing into the city. Even as some rain begins in Somalia bringing hope, it's not yet bringing any real improvement for people who've lost everything already. 

Now, Somalia's crisis is being exacerbated by global shocks far beyond its borders. The fallout from the crisis in the Middle East is driving up food prices by 70 percent in some areas, and fuel prices have skyrocketed by 150 percent. Supply routes have been disrupted, making it more difficult and more expensive to deliver aid inside the country.

It's all converging on communities that have already exhausted their ability to cope.

But there's another defining factor driving this crisis and sadly that's a severe lack of funding.

Right now, WFP and our partners are being forced to make really, really impossible choices. 

In Somalia, this has already led to a dramatic reduction in assistance across the board. The number of people reached has dropping from more than two million last year to just a fraction of that number today.

I visited a health centre in Puntland, about an hour's drive from Garowe town. There, I met mothers with their children who had arrived in search of help - in some cases, walking hundreds of kilometres from communities where livelihoods have been entirely wiped out. They arrived to find that organisations they could once count on for support, cannot support them.

One of those mothers told me that she had received two months of treatment for her three-year-old son who was facing malnourishment. But she was told that there was nothing more we could offer for the child to recover beyond this month's help. She is now forced to work out how on earth she will feed her child and other children next month. And this was one of the lucky areas where a health care centre was still open. 

In the same area, 12 health centres were running last year. Now there are only three. Preventive nutritional support in these centres has stopped, only treatment is provided now.

In practical terms, WFP is now only reaching one in 10 of people in need of food assistance.

We're at a point where a massive emergency response is urgently needed to prevent a worsening situation.

Somalia faces a very severe malnutrition crisis - one of the biggest malnutrition hotspots in the world.

Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates have already reached critical levels at the worst possible time. And without immediate funding - not just for the World Food Programme, but across many sectors - life-saving assistance will continue to shrink. In WFP’s case support could halt altogether in July if resources are not urgently received.

Let me be very clear: We've seen these conditions in Somalia before.

Unfortunately, in 2022, Somalia was on the brink of famine after a prolonged drought. At that time, the warning signs looked very similar to those we are seeing today; failed rains, collapsed livelihoods, rising hunger, and mass displacement.

But there was a critical difference in 2022: The international community acted and acted at scale.

Through rapid coordinated response, the humanitarian community was able to reach record numbers of people with life-saving assistance. And in that instance, successfully pushed famine back from the brink. Lives were saved at a massive, massive scale.

That experience proved two things. First, famine is always preventable. Second, prevention depends on timely action.

Today, we're at a similar decisive moment. We know WFP and the humanitarian community has people on the ground. We've got systems in place. We know how to respond. We know what's at stake.

We have the logistical backbone in place to support a massive humanitarian response. We have 1.7 million people biometrically registered that we can provide cash to almost immediately. Currently, 90 percent of food assistance in Somalia is managed by WFP teams. But as we said, only one in 10 are being supported right now.

Without urgent funding, humanitarians will not be able to deliver.

Our message today is simple: Please don't wait. Act now, before this emergency becomes a catastrophe. Scale up support to match the level of need. Invest not just in response but also in resilience so communities are not pushed to the brink again and again, but rather, have the ability to withstand food shocks.

Right now in Somalia, the warning signs are unmistakable. Hunger is rising. Coping strategies are collapsing. And the window is starting to close.

There's a clear lesson from 2022: When the world steps up, we can turn these things around. 

Thank you. 
 

#                       #                       #